In the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, cardiac catheterization can be a valuable tool for the cardiologist. During this procedure, the blood pressure is invasively measured by inserting a catheter into the patient's heart or a major artery. The pressure variations are transferred through the fluid-filled catheter to a pressure sensor placed on a table beside the patient. The blood pressure waveform may be measured over several heartbeats, and diagnostic parameters such as maximum systolic pressure (SP), beginning of diastolic pressure (BDP), and end diastolic pressure (EDP) may be derived from the blood pressure waveform.
However, the measured blood pressure data include artefacts caused by oscillatory pressure waves in the fluid column in the catheter. This phenomenon is illustrated in FIG. 1, where the true blood pressure wave form over one heartbeat is denoted 1 and the measured blood pressure is denoted 2. It can be seen that the true blood pressure 1 is superimposed with a higher frequency oscillation. Such oscillations negatively affect the diagnostic value of the measurement.